Kansas, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Kansas, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Kansas lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Kansas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kansas — the short answer
Kansas, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 281 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 281 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Kansas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kansas's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kansas
Each reading below is measured for Kansas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKansas runs about 208 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKansas sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Kansas is in
Kansas sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kansas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seneca County.
What Grows in Kansas
Every plant below cleared Kansas's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kansas?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Kansas
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Kansas, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kansas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kansas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KANSASUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- S-126-J33 MUTCHLER NR BURGOON OHNitrate · 2.4 mi
- PREMIER REFRACTORIES LABBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- VESUVIUS USABrownfields · 2.6 mi
- LAKOTA BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 077 Bettsville MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ROCKY PINE FARMS LLCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- S-208-SC26 LAKOTA HIGH SCHOOL SE OF GIRTON OHNitrate · 2.8 mi
- AFFORDABLE AUTOPAINTING LLCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- S-206-J18 BENDER S OF MILLERSVILLE OHNitrate · 3.7 mi
- VESUVIUS USA MAPLE GROVE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
- CARMEUSE LIME MAPLE GROVE OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kansas's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Kansas.
Total Sites
285
within ~10 miles of Kansas
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kansas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kansas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kansas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kansas — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kansas
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kansas average
Your land is one point inside Kansas
Everything above resolves to Kansas as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 281 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Kansas Average
Kansas Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kansas
- ●One soil character for all of Kansas
- ●Frost dates read at Kansas's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kansas's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kansas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kansas, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kansas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kansas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kansas average
How we know this about Kansas
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Kansas’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Kansas
When does frost risk typically end in Kansas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kansas typically lands around Apr 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 2.
When is the first frost in Kansas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kansas typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kansas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kansas sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 22, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kansas?
The federal record around Kansas is a meaningful one — 285 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kansas?
From about Oct 6 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kansas's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kansas's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Kansas’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kansas's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 281 acres it covers and 285 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kansas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kansas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 285 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kansas, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kansas's boundary and the 281 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kansas's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kansaslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kansas's 281 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seneca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seneca County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Seneca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kansas's 281 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kansas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 281 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Kansas-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioKansas sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides